


Coat of Many Colors

by NewEyes



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: ColdFlash Week - Day 3, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-16
Updated: 2015-09-16
Packaged: 2018-04-21 02:54:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4812272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NewEyes/pseuds/NewEyes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Things had been going so well this morning. A successful heist pulled only last week, a meeting with a new potential Rogue to add to his gallery. He'd been in a good mood. Things were looking up. </p><p>Then Barry had shown up at their meeting, hoping to apprehend...whoever. Now Captain Cold, feared leader of the Rogues, was standing in the middle of a small park in a bright orange coat while his nemesis stood next to him trying not to laugh. "</p><p>aka Len's coat gets turned into a mood ring</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coat of Many Colors

"Well. This is new." Snart said.

"Hahaha!" the newest villain of the week cackled. "Now you see the extent of my true powers!" Snart rolled his eyes.

"This meeting has clearly been a mistake." Snart said. Things had been going so well this morning. A successful heist pulled only last week, a meeting with a new potential Rogue to add to his gallery. He'd been in a good mood. Things were looking up.

Then Barry had shown up at their meeting, hoping to apprehend...whoever. Now Captain Cold, feared leader of the Rogues, was standing in the middle of a small park in a bright orange coat while his nemesis stood next to him trying not to laugh.

"Your true powers are turning Cold's coat orange?" Barry asked. But even as he said that the coat shifted colors, streaks of pink and red had appeared on the coat, constantly shifting.

"Your true powers are turning Cold's coat orange and pink?" Barry tried again. "Generally I enjoy those colors but I really don't think they work together as a fashion statement." A small giggle slipped out and Barry covered his mouth.

"It's not just a fashion statement!" the villain screamed. "The coat is linked to Snart now, it is a reflection of his inner self."

"My inner self?"

"Whatever you feel, the coat feels," the guy grinned, waving his arms around manically.

Len had had enough of this. He raised his cold gun, but before he could fire Barry had raced over and knocked the guy out. Barry flashed over to Cold and stopped in front of him. Len sighed.

"Guess you'll be looking for a new coat then?" Barry smirked.

"Oh I don't know. I think I look rather fetching in..." Snart looked down at the coat. "Yellow, orange and pink. Definitely my colors." Len definitely wasn't walking back to the Rogues hideout wearing this. He could just imagine the look on their faces. He tugged and gripped the coat, trying to open it and shrug it off. It wasn't working. It was almost as if the coat was stuck to his body. Len felt the beginnings of panic, but he tamped down on them quickly. He kept struggling but it was no use, he couldn't get the thing off. Barry was watching him curiously.

"I don't know what he's done to it but it looks like this coat is not coming off." Snart said.

"Here let me try." Barry took a handful of material in each hand. His hands started vibrating as he tried to rip the coat off and Len saw a small flash of lightning in his eyes.

"It's not working." Barry said, and dropped his hands.

"Apparently. Though I must say, when I imagined you trying to rip my clothes off it was in very different circumstances, Flash."

Barry went red.

"That's...not...I mean..."

"Don't worry about it kid." Snart shook his head.

"Wait, I have an idea," Barry said.

"You do?" Len did his best not to sound surprised.

"Yeah, hold on a sec."

There was a blur of red and yellow, and then he found himself in Star Labs.

*

"Remind me again why we're helping Captain Cold," Cisco said. "You know, the guy who has betrayed you many times, threatened my brother, hurt many people in this city?"

"Come on Cisco," Barry reasoned. "We've never seen anything like this. I know you want to figure out what's going on. We have a new meta in the cells and we know nothing about his powers really. This is a great shot to figure out what's going on with him, we might need the information in the future. Plus we'll be even, nobody will owe anybody any favours."

"Alright man." Cisco shook his head. "I understand. But I'm not sure this is entirely wise."

"My sister said to say hello next time I saw you." Cold smiled. He was sitting on the edge of the hospital bed still wearing the coat, arms crossed. Cisco frowned at him, and didn't reply.

"So, what happened?" Caitlin asked.

"The meta zapped Snart, his coat started going all multicolored. It's changed colors a few times since then. But he can't get it off. I can't either, which is saying something.

"Interesting," Cisco said. Caitlin started attaching various pieces of equipment to Snart.

"Did the meta say anything about what had happened? What was he trying to do?" Caitlin asked.

"He said the coat is linked to me, a 'reflection of my inner self'." Snart said using air quotes. "Whatever that is supposed to mean." Snart shrugged.

"Hang on guys, I think I'm getting an idea," Cisco got up from his chair slowly and walked over Len. Then, to his utter surprised, mild mannered tech nerd Cisco Ramon punched him in the face.

"What the...." Len felt a surge of rage. No-one had dared to do something like that to him in a long time. Decades even. Long before he had started stealing. He started towards Cisco but Cisco was grinning and punched the air.

"I knew it!" he beamed, and pointed towards Len's coat. Len looked down, the coat was now red, with tiny streaks of blue on the fabric.

"Of course," Caitlin nodded.

"Huh?" Barry looked at Cisco.

"The coat is tied to his emotions right? So I hit him, he got angry, the coat turned red. It's basically a mood ring." Cisco chortled. "This is so 80's."

"Hmm." As Len watched the red faded and was replaced by a light green. "Sounds reasonable. But how do we get the coat to stop...this." He gestured at himself. "Or at least, find some way to get the coat off of me."

"I'm really not sure. We'll need to run some tests. We can start by mapping out the colors. You bring up an emotion, we'll map it to a colour," Cisco said eagerly.

"No. Sorry kid. But you're not getting an easy guide to my emotions. I could be stuck like this for days. You're clever Cisco, Caitlin," Len paused and smirked, "Flash. I'm sure you'll figure out how to fix this without that knowledge."

"We can probably work out what all the colors are anyway," Barry said. He walked over and leant by the bed.

"Sure. But there's no reason to make it easy for you."

*

"So, green is calm, orange is annoyed, red is anger..."

"Barry. I'm trying to get to sleep." Len shifted onto his side to look at Barry. Sleeping on the floor in sleeping bags might be all well and good for young Barry Allen but Len was feeling his age.

"I understand you're having fun with this, but it's been twelve hours and I'm still stuck in this coat. I'm having an impromptu sleepover with my nemesis because I don't want to go outside looking like this, and you wouldn't leave me here unattended. This has been a really shitty day. I could really use some sleep."

"Oh," Barry looked surprised at the outburst. "Well, sure, I guess."

The minutes ticked by, slowly and it seemed like he would never get to sleep. Len was glad that he was wearing a sleeping bag and that Barry couldn't see the coat. He had no idea what it would be doing right about now. His breathing gradually slowed, and he fell into a restless doze.

He awoke to Barry yelling his name.

"Len!" He awoke with a start and opened his eyes to see Barry's face hovering above him. Barry looked worried.

"What's wrong?" Len struggled back to consciousness, his breathing was fast and he struggled to take a full breath.

"Um, you were just making a lot of noise." Barry sighed with relief and sat back on his heels. "You were yelling really loudly," he said quietly.

Len sat up, making sure to keep his shaking hands under the covers. "Oh, right." He couldn't meet Barry's eyes. "Sorry. I could always go and sleep in a different room? I won't steal your tech, you can set up cameras if you want."

"No. It's fine, I was just worried." Barry went back to his sleeping bag and laid down again. Cold lay back on the floor.

"You know, I have bad dreams sometimes too." Barry broke the silence.

Len didn't reply.

"I mean, you know, my Mum and everything. I understand a little."

"It's not the same." Len murmured.

"What?"

"Barry." Len looked over and met his eyes. "You're young. But despite everything you've lost, for everything you lose you always manage to gain something positive. You're a bright light, whatever you go through, you have loved ones. So many. More than most people ever get. You lose your mother, you gain Joe and Iris. You're like lightning, you light up everything around you; Cisco, Caitlin, Iris, Eddie, Jay, Wally."

Barry looked over at him silently, Len couldn't read the expression on his face.

"It isn't like that for most people, the world is a cold place. Most people are lucky to get one person who cares about them that much. And let's face it, most people don't really deserve more. They cheat on their wives, they're cruel, they steal things," Len gave a small smile.

Barry moved closer, until they were only a few inches away.

"I don't believe that."

"I know." Len whispered. "That's why you're Barry Allen. And I'm Captain Cold."

Barry raised his hand and placed it gently on Len's cheek. There was a pause, then Len leaned in and they were kissing. Barry's lips were soft and Len felt his heart skip in a way it hadn't for years. He pulled back slightly. He felt... everything. Happiness, hope, fear, sadness, lust and things he couldn't quite put a name on.

"I..." he began.

"Wait, look." Barry pointed at his coat. Len looked down.

"It's stopped changing. Let me just...." Barry gripped the coat again and within a few seconds it was off. Barry put it down on the ground between them, and they looked at it.

"What happened?" Len asked.

"I think you broke it. It was capable of doing a few emotions together, but..." Barry gestured at the coat. There was silence as Barry trailed off.

"Well." Barry looked unsure of himself. "That's finished then? I guess you want to... leave and get rid of the coat?"

Len was still looking down at the coat. It was a rainbow of colors.

"I really don't."

"You don't? You mean... well, yes, awesome. Great," Barry babbled. Len smiled.

"I'll get a new one for work," he said. "But I don't want to leave." Len looked up to meet Barry's eyes. "And I don't want to throw this away," he said softly.

"Of course," Barry grinned. "I think..."

Len leaned over and interrupted him with a kiss. When they pulled away, Barry was just looking at him, quietly.

"You know, maybe bright colors aren't so bad after all."

**Author's Note:**

> Mildly inspired by that bit in the The Brave and the Bold with rainbow!Batman.
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTffRmwJgnk
> 
> My Tumblr:  
> http://xxxneweyesxxx.tumblr.com/


End file.
